|
|
|
|
| Welcome, Guest | Home | Search | Login | Register | |
| Author | New To Me 2400c (Read 36223 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
LCARS
32 MB  Posts: 40  
|
on: July 15, 2009, 03:30
I am the proud owner of a remarkably well kept 2400c. I have a few random questions about this machine. The PRAM battery seems to be bad. What type of battery do I need and how do I replace it? I also have read that it has a real world maximum RAM of 112 via a 90MB DRAM chip. I have not had any luck in finding of these. Has anyone else? I really like this machine. The rhythmic hum of its 1.3GB '97 HD is quite nice as is its rather unique industrial design. The middle and bottom of the keyboard sound hollow while typing, but I am assuming some torx screws need tightening. My only real gripe is that the rainbow patterns on the Apple logos are crooked. Well that and it currently has 8.1 loaded- a dubious 8.1 at that. A SCSI cable will fix that. I have a brand new copy of 7.6.1 waiting to be loaded. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Lichen Software
|
128 MB Posts: 252 
Reply #1 on: July 15, 2009, 13:22
|
I am so Jealous. I have PB 1400's and know their limitations. the 2400c seems to lift them and keep a nice form factor. Pram battery available here: http://www.welovemacs.com/b4541.html If you can filtch the specs, you can probably replace it for cheaper locally. General specs here: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook/stats/mac_powerbook2400c_240.html and Here: http://lowendmac.com/pb2/powerbook-2400c.html Note particularly the warning on the hard drive contoller. Note: I was able to put a 30 Gb HD in my PB 1400, so your hard drive size can be increased. Also you should be able to go wireless with a Lucent card put out under man many brand names. Do a search for PB 1400 wireless to get some indications ofthe models that will work. Have fun.
|
LCARS
|
32 MB Posts: 40
Reply #2 on: July 15, 2009, 15:57
|
Thank you very much for the link, Lichen Software. Yikes, I knew WLMacs was pricey, but wow. Don't be jealous! This just means I have another Mac that needs some money sunk into it. That being said, I do find myself staring at it and showing it off to anyone in my house who will listen. I have a couple of Orinoco WiFi cards that I'll use, but I have perused the internal card hack (for the Newton, too). When the HD powered down last night, the battery life jumped to 2hrs. I am very tempted to throw an Extreme II Sandisk CF card in the HD bay for silence and battery life. However, I am not sure if I am competent enough to take this one apart. I've been in the guts of a 2300c and 3400c, but they seem simpler than this one. With this resume, do you think I would be able to take a 2400 apart?
|
Lichen Software
|
128 MB Posts: 252
Reply #3 on: July 15, 2009, 17:05
|
Quote from: "LCARS" Thank you very much for the link, Lichen Software. Yikes, I knew WLMacs was pricey, but wow. Find out the spec and go to a local battery shop. Where I am here in Canada "The Source" sells half AA's at about $25.00. Total Battery was about $9.00. Quote from: "LCARS" I have a couple of Orinoco WiFi cards that I'll use, but I have perused the internal card hack (for the Newton, too). Orinoco cards work well. Quote from: "LCARS" When the HD powered down last night, the battery life jumped to 2hrs. I am very tempted to throw an Extreme II Sandisk CF card in the HD bay for silence and battery life. I put a CFR card in mine and the perception was that it was slower. That is the down side. The up side is it is a cheap second drive either to use as a repository for your full operating system or to put a second operating system on. Quote from: "LCARS" However, I am not sure if I am competent enough to take this one apart. I've been in the guts of a 2300c and 3400c, but they seem simpler than this one. With this resume, do you think I would be able to take a 2400 apart? LOL The question is not can you take it apart, but can you put it back together and not break anything while doing it. If you can find all of the parts you want (Assuming you will spend lots of money here): RAM Larger Hard drive Accelerator It might be a good idea to just bring the machine and parts into a local dealer and pay the hour or so that it will take. Alternatively, google is your friend and look for tear apart diagrams. The Apple site may also be your friend. A larger hard drive can be partitioned and you can run 7.6.1 and 8.6 (especially if you get an accelerator and RAM). 7.6.1, especially as upgraded from this site is really fast. 8.6 allows you to use Classilla for a browser which is pretty much as modern a browser experience as you will get with this machine. I am hoping that they can push Classilla back to 7.6.1 in some form so I can centre on just that system. Oh - so much fun to be had here
|
LCARS
|
32 MB Posts: 40
Reply #4 on: July 16, 2009, 02:52
|
I have not quite figured out how to quote on this forum, so please excuse any formatting errors. About the compact flash that you used- do you remember its speed? I have read many different reports about read/write speed, but it seems that the Extreme II and III SanDisk cards do a good job. I suppose I could bypass the HD replacement all together and use a ATA flash PCMCIA as the boot disk and have the HD always spun down. About taking the computer apart: I guess you're right- that's the easy part. I was able to put the other PowerBooks back together successfully, but I'll have to read as many tear down manuals as I can find for this one. I would love to find a G3 accelerator or even the 240Mhz mobo, but I won't hold my breath. Classilla is interesting. I used iCab on my Kanga, and it worked amazingly well for the sites I went to. It seems that many sites have gone overboard with Flash. Even my G4s don't like it. You are correct, there is much fun to be had with this computer. Part of which will be to use it to take notes in class and watch the hordes of shiny-screened macbook users look at me as if I just landed from Alpha Centauri. When you went to your local battery shop, how did you make a new battery? I have zero soldering skills and no electrical skills either. I can't wait to get this 'Book up to my specs!
|
Lichen Software
|
128 MB Posts: 252
Reply #5 on: July 16, 2009, 12:18
|
For CF cards, I just picked up the cheapest I could find. They have come down in price greatly. I Have been hoping that someone would get one of each and benchmark out the performance. Classilla has been really good. It defaults to having Javascript OFF making it faster on most sites. You turn it on for individual sites and it remembers which ones. It also has a view without style command for particularly troublsome sites. It says that there are accelerators for this machine. I know that the ones for PB 1400's used are not easy to find, especially fast ones and they are not cheap. I had one pram battery made up for a StarMax. the original was like a drycell with a pigtail. the guys t the battery shop removed the pigtail and welded three individual cells together and protected all with a shrinkwrap. It has worked well. I doubt that option will work here as space will be at a premium. What you want is a battery shop that has a battery of equivalent spec. You can get a hard drive for this beastie I am sure. Try Wagener Media. They also are not cheap, but that is where I picked up the 30 Gig for my PB 1400. (a.) a newer drive is faster and (b.) the drive is really the only moving part on this. Given it does not overheat, the rest will last a long long time. So IMHO, a new drive is a really good investment here. Also a good investment is RAM. Given accelerators willbe hard to come ba=y, maxing out the ram and a faster hard drive will give the best performance. Just thing, you probably have the first truly finctioning netbook around.
|
LCARS
|
32 MB Posts: 40
Reply #6 on: August 01, 2009, 19:45
|
It certainly is the size of a (large) netbook, but fortunately it has better build quality and that all-important multi colored logo. There was an upgraded 2400 on eBay a few weeks ago with a 240Mhz G3 and it went for over $300. I'm not sure 7.6 would even run on a that upgrade chip but I've found dealing with the drama of bidding on antique accelerators is too much for me. You're right, I'll max out the RAM and load RAM doubler. I have yet to install 7.6 and with its current 8.1, it takes an absurdly long time to start, even with unnecessary extensions disabled. My 200Mhz 3400c with 7.6 takes less than half the time, but I still love this little machine. Being the perfectionist that I am, the top cover has some dull scrapes, so now I'm trying to find a new cover.
|
Lichen Software
|
128 MB Posts: 252
Reply #7 on: August 02, 2009, 15:27
|
You will notice a distinct speed bump going to 7.6.1, especially if you do all of the upgrades on this site. For browsing, you are back at Netscape or IE. I did some previous posts about optomizing Netscape using a user.js file. So you can pick up some browsing speed there. Putting in perspective though, I looked at the benchmarks for the 2400 and the 1400 lower end PB. You 2400 unchanged is running at almost 300% faster than the low end PB 1400. I put a 333 G3 in my PB 1400 that bumps the original speed up about 800%. That sounds like a lot, but that is only 260 odd percent higher than what you are running. If you do find any accelerator for that machine at all, it will probably match or exceed what I am running here.
|
LCARS
|
32 MB Posts: 40
Reply #8 on: August 15, 2009, 04:36
|
I can't wait to get 7.6.1 on this machine. I am not a fan of this version of OS 8 and I am certainly not a fan of 8 on a machine that was built for 7. I have already downloaded all the upgrades from this site and am looking forward to installing them and doing some hardware upgrades. I'm mentally preparing myself for the chore of replacing the HD with something newer. That is an amazing speed difference between the 2400 and 1400. I have never used a 1400, but if my 2400 is this slow with 8.1, I couldn't imagine a 1400 with 9.1 (as per MacTracker's statement on the 1400s max OS). Ah, PowerBook processor upgrades. Those were the days. I love my 17" G4, but I wish planned processor obsolescence was not part of the equation with today's laptops. And now with the netbook craze, I hope we are not setting ourselves up for a future of even more cheaply made computers that will not last beyond three years. It is remarkable that we are all using computers that are decidedly dated in technological terms, which are still chugging along (sometimes with the original HD and OS install)!
|
Lichen Software
|
128 MB Posts: 252
Reply #9 on: August 16, 2009, 13:06
|
Quote from: "LCARS" I can't wait to get 7.6.1 on this machine. I am not a fan of this version of OS 8 and I am certainly not a fan of 8 on a machine that was built for 7. I have already downloaded all the upgrades from this site and am looking forward to installing them and doing some hardware upgrades. I'm mentally preparing myself for the chore of replacing the HD with something newer. 7.6 runs really nicely. I run both 7.6 and 8.6 because of (a) browsing and (b) the ability to use ORiNOCO instead of WavLan for the wireless card. Both require 8.6 and up. I use this machine as a utility machine - browsing, email and tunes. It sits in the kitchen and goes to the coffee shop. WavLan won't connect at the coffee shop for some reason (I think it is probably a browser thing as there is a log on and the browser just doesn't run it). Quote from: "LCARS" That is an amazing speed difference between the 2400 and 1400. I have never used a 1400, but if my 2400 is this slow with 8.1, I couldn't imagine a 1400 with 9.1 (as per MacTracker's statement on the 1400s max OS). If you want to have a feeling for the frustration, take your significant other to a movie. Stand in line to get your ticket for a half hour or so. When your turn comes ... Walk away . Think of it as "Time ... Hmmm....Spent" Quote from: "LCARS" It is remarkable that we are all using computers that are decidedly dated in technological terms, which are still chugging along (sometimes with the original HD and OS install)! I think that the average user really does not need much. Browsing, email, tunes and video. The first three can be done fairly well on the old machines. Video is a little harder, especially on machines that are challenged. That they still run is a testament to the quality of the initial build. For a long time, all of the machines ran SCSI drives. You still find SCSI in high end machines or as an expensive option. Also, I have a friend of mine, much yonger than me, has found the Mac world but entered at the Intel/ OS X/ MacBook stage. I was showing him the PB 1400 one day and the first thing he said was "wow - a real keyboard and a really nice form factor". Good initial design in the computer world is not timeless, but it does slow time down a bit to keep machines useful far longer than was anticipated by the manufacturer. It also helps a lot that there is a fan base so you see accelerators and sites like this and parts still available.
|
scotthva5
|
2 MB Posts: 2
Reply #10 on: September 21, 2009, 16:03
|
Quote I did some previous posts about optimizing Netscape using a user.js file. So you can pick up some browsing speed there. I can confirm that your user.js hack works amazingly well, at least on my PowerBook 5300ce running OT 1.3. This is a must have hack for Netscape 4.8.
|
Lichen Software
|
128 MB Posts: 252
Reply #11 on: September 22, 2009, 12:13
|
Quote from: "scotthva5"
LOL - It is not so much a hack as the "way it used to be done". All versions of Mozilla, including Fire Fox now, of which Netscape is one, have a set of preferences that can be accessed by typing in "about:config" in the URL bar. In later versions, including WamCom Mozilla and Classilla, the resulting list is editable by the user. This had not yet been implemented at the time of Netscape as far as I can find. When I was trying to figure out how to do this, I went searching for documentation on Netscape. It turns out that in its time, it was an enterprise strength suite but was sent out into the wild suitable for the average user who at that point was on dial up. When it was put into an enterprise setting, the IT staff would then "Tune it up". this was done using the user.js file. It must have been quite common as the old versions of BBEdit had a "Save as Netscape Document" option.
|
Lichen Software
|
128 MB Posts: 252
Reply #12 on: September 22, 2009, 12:14
|
Quote from: "scotthva5"
LOL - It is not so much a hack as the "way it used to be done". All versions of Mozilla, including Fire Fox now, of which Netscape is one, have a set of preferences that can be accessed by typing in "about:config" in the URL bar. In later versions, including WamCom Mozilla and Classilla, the resulting list is editable by the user. This had not yet been implemented at the time of Netscape as far as I can find. When I was trying to figure out how to do this, I went searching for documentation on Netscape. It turns out that in its time, it was an enterprise strength suite but was sent out into the wild suitable for the average user who at that point was on dial up. When it was put into an enterprise setting, the IT staff would then "Tune it up". this was done using the user.js file. It must have been quite common as the old versions of BBEdit had a "Save as Netscape Document" option.
|
scotthva5
|
2 MB Posts: 2
Reply #13 on: September 22, 2009, 13:32
|
While we're on the subject, do you know if 4.08 supports HTTP pipelining? I remember ~back in the day~ when pipelining was an option for the Windows version, which made no difference over dial-up but did speed things up over my company LAN. I can't remember which version of Netscape implemented it though. I ran a couple of quick and dirty benchmarks using S7T's software updates page and CNN's front page, using a PowerBook 5300ce running 7.6.1, OT 1.3 and WaveLan 6.00.4. In short: load times on a 5300ce were halved using the user.js mod on S7T and an astonishing 3x decrease on CNN. As mentioned elsewhere Open Transport 1.3 does seem to make a difference vs. 1.1.2 in Netscape (seat of the pants opinion, no hard numbers to back that claim up).
|
Lichen Software
|
128 MB Posts: 252
Reply #14 on: September 22, 2009, 22:38
|
Quote from: "scotthva5" While we're on the subject, do you know if 4.08 supports HTTP pipelining? I remember ~back in the day~ when pipelining was an option for the Windows version, which made no difference over dial-up but did speed things up over my company LAN. I can't remember which version of Netscape implemented it though. Here is the user.js file I am using right now: user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 32); user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server",18); user_pref("network.http.pipelining",true); user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests",4); user_pref("dom.disable_open_during_load",true); So I have the connections opened up for high speed, pipelining turned on but I am only letting it go 4 requests ahead. The last little item is to block popups.
|
|
Pages: [1] 2
|
| |||||||||||||||
|
© 2021 System7Today.com. |
